Dear Wayne State University Faculty and Academic Staff:

During the 2022-23 academic year, the Academic Senate appointed an ad hoc committee on artificial intelligence (AI) to begin to explore the impact on higher education of the rapid development of AI systems.  One recommendation stood out in the preliminary report—that faculty inform students in their course syllabi about use of AI such as Jasper and ChatGPT in carrying out course assignments.  The Academic Senate’s Curriculum & Instruction Committee was concurrently undertaking a more extensive study of the university’s syllabus template and the research on writing syllabi that might be helpful to faculty.

With this notice, the Academic Senate is sharing with the instructional faculty the ad hoc committee’s preliminary report on AI and the Curriculum & Instruction Committee’s preliminary guidance on preparing syllabi to be more responsive to student learning needs.  We hope this assists you in considering changes you might make to your syllabi as well as in considering the broader questions about AI raised in the ad hoc group’s preliminary report.

Please contact me or others on the Senate if you have ideas, questions or concerns about the AI issues raised in the report or the university’s syllabus template.

Regards,

Linda M. Beale 

President, Academic Senate, and Professor of Law